Late Night Office Light
by Breezewhiskers
Summary: Upon returning to his position as chief of security at Sarif Industries, Adam Jensen finds that Faridah Malik seems to be the only one that makes him feel truly welcome once more. A story of how their relationship develops through the late nights at the office and across the skies in the VTOL.
1. Chapter 1

Six months.

Just six.

Adam Jensen wasn't much of a whiner, if Sarif needed him to work an extra shift, he worked the extra shift. If an employee asked him to look into a matter, he looked into it. He didn't have a whole slew of extra activities that took up his spare time anyway.

But when you've been physically assaulted to the point of your limbs needing amputating, most of your chest cavity replaced by augmentations, and taken a bullet to the brow, He expected a little sick leave. He did of course, get sick leave, but how much of that was actually just trying to get used to having metal where flesh used to be? He spent at least one of those months just trying to pick stuff up with his _new _hands. New hands, _brand_ new in fact. Sarif's name was stamped on three different parts on the left arm alone. Same case on the right arm. Ten years ago, you didn't get a _new _arm. You got a prosthesis, a place-holder, something to help make you functional again. Fast-forward ten years, you have teenagers asking their parents for new arms, new legs, new eyes, new everything. Adam remembers when they asked for new phones. He visibly winces at the comparison.

Speaking of phones, he needed his. Where was it? Adam used the arms to carefully open drawers, lift books and other knick-knacks, searching for that hunk of plastic. The golden light lazily spilling into his apartment through the blinders doing little to erase the shadows that his own mess caused.

Suddenly his vision is obscured by white text, filling a yellow-gold box. He twitches in surprise and the bowl he's holding breaks into dozens of shards. With his teeth gritting in frustration, he crushes the single remaining shard left in the hand. As the dust wisps to the floor, he concentrates on the white text, hovering in his line of sight.

"_Need you here ASAP. -S"_

The Infolink. Of course, how could he have forgotten about the Infolink? He didn't have a phone to hold anymore, it was built into his cranium. Practical, he supposed. Couldn't exactly misplace it now.

Sarif had called, he was his boss. He had to go. It was simple. He carefully ascended the stairs to the door and jarringly slipped the mechanical feet into his shoes. He tested walking for a bit, when his shoes didn't fall off, He used the right arm to grab his coat, black Highman in leather, He noted with satisfaction. Just like the one he had before. Same floral pattern on the shoulders, same length, same everything. Good to have a small semblance of normality. It was probably Sarif's doing as well. He should probably thank him he thought as the door swished shut behind him.

The walk to Sarif Industries took six minutes less than what it used to. New lungs and legs making a walk in the park, a walk in the park. Too bad the park is inhabited by people who keep staring at you. Jensen found himself at last, outside the place where he had lost most of his original body parts. He tilted his head upwards, the immense building taking up most of his vision. The structure seemed to radiate and ooze a golden light. It was a giant desk lamp in a gargantuan room inhabited by darkness. He would've liked to continue to philosophize, but Sarif needed him ASAP.

The lobby here is worse. Everyone remembers Adam Jensen, head of security who apparently died six months ago. _Everyone _is staring. Until Adam stares back of course, then they try to look busy.

That's when he remembers Pritchard telling him something about his retinal enhancement, he told him to activate the _shades_, whatever that meant, surely they couldn't have put sunglasses in his h-

_"Schick"_

Apparently they had.

The wonders of modern technology. Two dusky discs slid out of the black shapes next to each eye and quieted the glow of the lobby somewhat. It gave Adam some closure, but he wasn't going to admit that it felt kind of cool just yet.

Cindy has been too busy typing a report to notice the trench-coat wearing man standing smack-dab in front of her desk. That's when she catches a glimpse of a metal hand knocking on her pristine desk, looking up she sees the man himself, Adam Jensen. In the flesh, and all the other materials.

"Mr. Jensen?" She cries out in that sweet mixture of surprised happiness. Her fingers leave the keyboard to scoot her chair back to get a better look at him. Aside from the glasses, metal hands and skin that was _maybe just a little shiny,_ he looked just like the first day he had started at Sarif Industries. His looks didn't need any augmenting,_ that's_ for sure.

"Hey Cindy, how you holding up?" That voice sounded like he was munching on gravel, always did. It was oddly comforting to hear it, and to know that this rather imposing gentleman was head of security, who had also come back from the dead six months early to help defend the employees of this company.

"Oh I've been fine you know, things have been a little empty, a little weird, but now that you're back it feels like we're getting back on track again! It's good to have you back Mr. Jensen." Cindy says his name with a certain satisfaction, as if she'd remembered the nostalgia of a childhood Christmas. It made Adam feel a little less cranky about coming in early, some people had missed him apparently.

"Well, I uh, I was told to see Sarif ASAP. He's in his office right?" Adam shifted slightly and crossed his augmented arms.

"That's right! Just take the elevator to the left on the second floor. I'll make sure they know you're coming." Cindy said with enthusiasm laced with an ingrained sense of professionalism and went back to typing on her keyboard.

"Thanks Cindy. See you." Adam said just as his retinal enhancement started glitching. There were compression artifacts and tearing everywhere. Pritchard probably knew what this was all about. Adam frowned. Time to go meet good ol' bitchy Pritchy.

* * *

He shut the door to the tech lab rather loudly, his augmented hearing picking up the sound of a falling coffee mug and Pritchard cursing faintly. The computer genius was one of the people who had _not _missed him and made it painfully clear. Adam understood that it was unrealistic for him to be liked by everyone in the building, but the smug bastard had no right to be so spiteful, so poisonous as to blame _him _for Megan. He had blamed himself enough for the past six months in recovery. The shrinks had done their utmost to smooth out the stained wrinkles of the tablecloth that was his conscience, all to no avail. You don't re-build a house that's burning just after you evacuate the family that's living in the house. You have to wait for the dust to settle and for the clean-up crew to hide the scars. Then you wait for the wind to sweep the whole neighbourhood, so that people forget. Adam's house still had fresh embers popping in the corners. Pritchard had just come in and dumped a bale of hay on those embers. It frustrated Adam to the point where he fancied trying out his new hands on that bike that was cooped up in that stuffy office. Adam Jensen is nothing if not adaptable however, and so he decided whatever task Sarif needed him to do would earn the prize of his frustration.

On his way to the helipad, Adam caught a glimpse of the nightly Picus newsreel on the large monitor. It wasn't much but there was apparently a situation with Purity First at one of their plants. Could that be what Sarif wanted him for? He pushed open the double doors leading to the helipad and saw woman with wings herself, Faridah Malik. She was leaning against her VTOL with a practised poise, casual, yet able to spring into action at any given time. The yellow floodlights angled at the helipad only seemed to black out the rest of the night by building a shell around the general area of the VTOL. Malik saw Jensen coming down the walkway and lifted herself off the hull just as Adam came into arms-length.

"Jensen. Didn't think we'd be seeing you around here any time soon." Malik said as if she was still having trouble believing that he was actually here, although judging from the look on her face, she more than happy that he was back.

"You know how it goes Malik. Duty calls." Jensen said sympathetically but curtly.

"Don't I know it, I was halfway to the top of the renaissance centre when I got the 9-1-1, but you? Six months is a helluva short time to come back from the dead. You sure you ready for this?" Malik said with open-eyed concern. Her eyelashes catching some of the heavy perspiration in the air, the floodlights making it seem like heavy clouds of glittering dust.

Adam hadn't really thought about it. He hadn't had much combat practice with the augments yet still, he felt capable enough to deal with a few punks.

"Only one way to find out." Adam replied, cautiously optimistic.

Faridah could had a good feeling about Jensen, he looked capable. Just like she remembers him.

"Good. Hop in back and we'll be off." Malik doesn't even try to hide her grin as she makes her way to the cockpit. Adam's finds his mood freshened by Malik, he feels less heavy now. His mind flickered back to the tiny droplets caught up by her eyelashes. It was magazine-worthy material. Completely natural too, he added as the side of the VTOL unfolded itself, slowly bathing Jensen in more intense light, coming from the interior of the craft. As the side of the craft became a ramp into the belly of the metal hovercraft he finally caught sight of the man who was his boss.

David Sarif. He fidgets uncomfortably. Trying not to look at the golden discs that cover the artificial eyes of the man that he had played god with, _and _taken him out of sick leave early.

It was for a good cause though, he kept telling himself.

Adam looks at Sarif for a moment, before entering the VTOL and placing himself upon one of the seats. He waits for him to say something. "Welcome back, Adam" or "Sorry for pulling you in so soon". Nothing.

"Thanks for the coat." Adam says politely. His face not showing it.

Sarif looks up from his lap. "That was Faridah's idea." He says as they take off.

Faridah? She must be happy with him wearing it he thought. It certainly showed. It was a thoughtful gesture that he appreciated. Malik had been the only one to make him feel truly missed at the company so far. He'd have to find a way to pay her back somehow when they get back.

He shrugs off the black trench-coat and folds it upon one of the seats. He wasn't going to let it get filled with bullet holes on the first night out. Adjusting his combat vest, he turns to Sarif once more.

"So tell me about these purists."


	2. Chapter 2

The office felt numb. A bit too quiet. A bit detached. He could look out over the lobby and see various employees go about their business, but it was more like watching a film half-heartedly over the shoulder of somebody else. Detached, uninvolved. Numb.

Adam tried his best to recline in his chair, but he kept leaning, kept tapping and shaking the leg. He tried going on the net, find some news or something to keep him occupied. The front page was about the Milwaukee attack, and his inbox was empty. Typical. He shut down the computer and rose from the chair that was far too lenient. He walked to the gigantic window, nothing to see. Just Cindy doing her job. Typical. Contemplating the amount of activities one can perform in an office, Jensen found himself on the couch as his final, desperate move. Typical. Adam thought about going down to the cafeteria for a mug of coffee or whatever they had, but that was before someone finally knocked on his door.

"It's open!" Adam called, almost a little too enthusiastically, instantly regretting it as the door slowly opened its maw.

"Adam?" An inquisitive, familiar voice called through the small opening in the wall. Adam glimpsed the features of Malik for the third time that night, and immediately felt a little more insecure, what would she think of him, huddled away in his office after a his first day at work in over half a year? Granted, it was not your typical day at work by an incredibly long shot, but still. Huddling is huddling.

Malik carefully walked into the newly dusted office, taking all the details in as she walked to his desk. She decided to make it her seat, preferring to face a person when she talked with them, unlike some of the geeks in the lab.

"So I heard that you not only saved the hostages, but you did it without even one of those punks getting killed?" Faridah broke aura of silence with a tone tinged with the slight flavour of disbelief, shattering the silent trance radiating from the stoic man on the couch as soon as she had made herself comfortable on said man's desk.

Adam seemed to process her words before he looked up at her. "As far as I know. Don't know about SWAT though." he casually admitted, his face never changing from his natural expression of "I'm watching you".

"You um, don't seem happy about that, chief." Faridah half-heartedly chuckled, unsure of what was romping about in Jensen's mind.

Adam slowly rose from his couch to stand in front of the rose-tinted windows.

"I don't know, it feels like, it didn't really matter in the end." He said, staring through the shield of glass. He could imagine Malik's confused expression behind his back and decided to elaborate.

"Before I joined SWAT, I had to face the reality that most of the gangbangers and muggers, even some of the murderers I arrested would be out in a handful of months with good behaviour. Most of them were small fry, but they still hurt people, and after little time in a cell, they were free to hurt more people. People that didn't deserve to have those kinds of things haunt them when they tried to sleep, provided they weren't dead." Adam added the final words with a slight grimace.

"So what exactly, did I accomplish back there, aside from giving those purists another reason to hate augs?" Adam finished as he turned to face Faridah once more.

Swinging her legs, the VTOL pilot mulled over the security expert's words for a handful of silent, swishing seconds. She turned her head to the man framed by soft red light.

"You gave everyone else a reason to love augs." Faridah said with a knowing smile. Sensing Jensen's hidden, confused eyes, she also decided to elaborate.

"You gave the nightly headlines a happy ending, something SWAT couldn't guarantee. Even a small team of their best couldn't have pulled it off cleanly and they knew that." Malik's frame slid off the desk as she spoke, her boots making no sound as she made contact with the floor.

"Only someone like you could have resolved this like... like..." Her voice trailed downwards as she struggled to find an appropriate comparison.

"Like a Saturday morning cartoon from the 90's!" she exclaimed excitedly with her hands framing the imaginary numerical figure in front of her. The pilot's eyes were lit up with the sweet, sweet flavour of nostalgia.

Jensen's left eyebrow rose in a slightly confused way. Fortunately, a corner of his mouth also rose in amusement. Whether it was at the adorable display of excitement or at the comparison she had made, it seemed to have shattered the moody casing he seemed so determined to hide inside.

Malik realized what she must've looked like from Jensen's eyes and started to laugh at the image she had created of herself. She had really gone too far. Cartoons from the 90's? Really?

After her laughter had subsided she tried to fix her slight blunder. Straightening up she looked at Jensen's veiled eyes and "Aaaanyway, what I meant is that... Purity First didn't hesitate to take hostages, and they didn't hesitate to try and kill them when shit hit the fan, with toxic gas no less." Malik added the weapon to her sentence with visible distaste.

"You however, saved everyone, including the bad-guys. Even the ones that didn't deserve it. You know what we call those?" Malik asked as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

Jensen either didn't know, or he was taken aback by the sudden touch of his pilot. Either way, he showed no sign of answering as he faced Malik again.

"Heroes." She said, her eyes reflecting small dots of light like two miniature galaxies.

He smiled.

"Thanks, Malik."

"No Adam, thank you." Faridah said with a good-natured laugh as she turned to walk out the door.

"I mean it Malik." He called after her as she was just about to leave the room.

"I know you do!" She called back as she closed the door with a click.

Then it struck her.

She had made stone-faced Jensen smile.

That thought made her feel positively giddy. She waltzed back to the VTOL with a slight skip in her step. Unsure why, but nonetheless happy.


	3. Bowl o' Black

**Big thanks to my incredible beta-reader, Yonshii for her invaluable input. I also thought it would be better to write shorter episodes in order to have a more even flow of chapters. Ideas? Prompts perhaps? Feel free to tell me what you would like to see!**

* * *

"It's 2027 and people still think that voluntary poisoning is the cool thing to do."

Adam noticed Malik had stepped out of the cockpit and was standing beside him, her face was thinly veiled behind the passing wall of smoke that was slowly crumbling into the blackness of night air. The process was hastened by her hand slapping the air, clearing the line of sight between her and Jensen.

"My lungs are like a car engine, cycling poisonous gases without causing harm to myself." Jensen noted in a factual voice as he took yet another drag of the burning roll of tolerable toxin.

"Figured as much, but what about those of us that don't have super-lungs, Jensen?" Malik asked as she leaned against the hull of the VTOL, never breaking eye contact. Well, "eye contact" with Jensen was a tricky thing, what with the shades that were apparently glued to his eyes. Technically they were grafted into his skin, but he rarely retracted them anyway, so glue wasn't totally out of the question.

Adam shrugged. He looked at his shoes for a moment.

"Stand a safe distance away?" He half-heartedly answered.

Malik sighed.

"Adam, you do enough of the distancing thing already. Or don't you think we notice that if you're not in your office, you're in your apartment?" Malik crossed her arms with a knowing face as she was leaning against her VTOL.

Jensen sighed, producing more grey smoke that dissolved into the inky blackness that was the night sky.

"I prefer to not get in the way." Jensen murmured as he stared at the skyscraper ahead of him. Sarif HQ was always such a matchstick at night.

"Y'know, people feel safer when chief of security is roaming the halls like the other mortals." Faridah chuckled.

"Maybe."

"Which is _why..." _

Malik reached over to Jensen to pluck the seed of isolation from his metal fingers to hold it within her gloved ones. She held it up to him for him to see, like a professor at a biology dissection. The smoke was still spiralling upwards in a fading carousel, always blending itself with the cold night air like a weak dab of white into a massive bowl of black paint. It wasn't very noticeable after the start, but it was there. The white dab would linger to sully the pure, unaltered black for quite some time. The thought that you would take away something like that to replace with a toxin always sickened her. It was sad really. Adam didn't need any more of it.

"You don't need _this."_ Malik said as she flicked the bundle of chemicals away from their standing position.

Adam followed the downward arc of the smoke as it landed with a _pit-pat_ as it struck against the concrete. He looked at the small column of white, rising and disappearing, rising and disappearing in a steady flow.

He pushed against the VTOL to make his way towards the smoke. He looked down at the thing, Malik couldn't see his expression with his back to her, but she didn't need to. What mattered was that he snuffed the flow of smoke with his foot.

As he walked back, Malik thought that perhaps Jensen was wearing a ghost of a smile upon his mouth, then again, that could have been the helipad's floodlights playing tricks on her.

Then again, it didn't really matter.

He could start painting a better picture now.

* * *

A few days afterwards, Malik saw Jensen walk around the various floors of Sarif HQ. He really did try to look busy, the truth is that he looked incredibly awkward as he leaned against the railings with something of a determined face.

Malik stopped at her office door to wave at Jensen who was on the third floor.

He waved back with a satisfied smile.

The PA system suddenly sung. "Adam Jensen and Faridah Malik to the Helipad. Adam Jensen and Faridah Malik to the helipad."

On their way to the VTOL to meet Sarif, Malik happily noticed that Adam wasn't carrying the familiar box of cigarettes in his pocket.


	4. Midnight Burgers

Jensen was seriously considering slapping his boss when he got back to HQ, or maybe just calling him right now to ask him why exactly he needed chief of _security_ to spy on gang-bangers at 4 in the morning. Aug-hating gang-bangers to boot. He could've been doing some legitimately good work elsewhere, but no.

Adam Jensen was hiding on a rooftop overlooking a group of thugs, a flaming trash-can and absolutely _nothing_ else.

And it was drizzling. Quite heavily.

It was lovely. No really. Fantastic even. When he got back, Adam was going to tell Sarif all the wondrous secrets he had learnt from a group of shuddering thugs standing in the rain.

It was then the infolink sparked to life. A familiar voice started to flow through his augmented ears.

_"Hey Jensen! You there?"_

"Where else would I be Malik?" Jensen replied sardonically.

_"Just checkin' up on you. How's the reconnaissance going?" _She said, ever-cheerful. The sound of her voice contrasted incredibly with the clouds of gloomy, black water that kept coming from nowhere.

"It's great. Listening to gang-bangers talk about what brand of cereal they like to eat for midnight snacks is absolutely illuminating." Jensen's words were coated in the slippery grease of sarcasm, leaking over the brim of the radio waves.

_"Hey, I've seen your apartment. Talking ill of cereal-lovers is not something you should be doing. Or was I just imagining those Crunchy Pirates and Augmentchoos in the kitchen?" _Malik countered in a mock-serious tone.

"No comment."

_"Anyway, sounds like you could use a break, Mr. Super-spy." _

"Suppose I could."

_"I just got off from work, wanna meet for a post-midnight snack?" _The pilot sounded strangely hopeful.

"Anything's better than this." Jensen said as he descended from the rooftop by fire-escape.

_"Great! If you're not too far away, you could make it back to HQ, the cafeteria is usually pretty empty at this time." _

"It's just a short walk. I'll be there in a few minutes." Jensen said as he walked past the precinct.

_"See you soon chief!" _Faridah said as the auditory connection was severed.

Jensen walked faster.

* * *

Faridah and Adam found themselves sharing the XL - version of the cafeteria's burger. Malik's flight gloves were haphazardly discarded next to the paper wrapping in a peeled pile whilst she devoured the food source with unhidden zeal. Adam found himself staring as the polite pilot turned into a T-Rex with a taste for Sarif- approved burgers. Malik finally noticed after a while that Adam wasn't digging in. She looked up to see him peering at her with a tilted head, similar to the geeks in the lab when they were dreaming up new augmentations and all that jazz.

"What?" The pilot asked with ketchup leaking out of the corners of her mouth.

"Nothing. You're just... enthusiastic." Jensen said in a musing voice. "It's interesting." He quickly added.

"_Intereschting_." Malik repeated without breaking eye-contact, or moving at all. Crumbles escaped the captivity of her mouth to roll upon the table and her uniform.

Adam slowly removed a slice of burger, without breaking eye-contact and slowly began to eat. Apparently satisfied, Malik returned to her glorious feast.

"Thisch is good. We schould do it agaihn sometime." Faridah spoke through a semi-solid wall of food without looking up.

"The VTOL doesn't pack a refrigerator?" Adam asked whilst munching.

"Hah!" A minor explosion of beef riddled the table. "Againsht regulashtions." She said bitterly. Like the name of an old rival from high-school.

Adam hummed in understanding.

"You're right. We should do this again." Jensen said after a pause.

Malik looked up again and smiled a messy smile at the mild-mannered super-spy.

"Itsh a _date!" _She exclaimed happily raising her naked fists to the roof.

Adam Jensen froze for a few seconds. His face as dead as dead can be.

"It's a date." He said as if he had reached the most vital decision in his life.

Oh Jensen. What have you done?


End file.
